Deficit drives give back 2nd ambulance’

The city’s sole contracted ambulance provider wants to renege on the terms of its hard-won agreement to save money.

Betsy Lopez Fritscher

The city’s sole contracted ambulance provider wants to renege on the terms of its hard-won agreement to save money.

OSF Saint Anthony-based Lifeline Ambulance will seek council approval Monday to revert to one truck from two, as outlined in its 2008 contract.

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Lifeline Ambulance began serving Boone County in 1987 and Belvidere in 1993.

In 2008, the city — with the support of Mayor Fred Brereton — considered switching its contracted ambulance services to Superior Ambulance. About 1,100 people signed a petition in February to keep Lifeline in Belvidere, and the city eventually re-signed with Lifeline.

Lifeline operated one ambulance in Belvidere from 1993 until June 2008, when it added one ambulance to its contract with the city.

Lifeline is based at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. Some people were concerned that Lifeline would divert patients from the recently opened SwedishAmerican Medical Center/Belvidere to other area hospitals, but state law prohibits the company from doing so.

Maggie Carlson, manager of OSF Lifeline Ambulance, told aldermen Monday at the committee of the whole meeting that Lifeline is running $500,000 in the red by operating two ambulances out of Belvidere: “The revenue coming in is less than our expenses going out.”

OSF has operated two trucks in Belvidere since June 1, 2008, when the new contract was approved. “Up until that time and for over 15 years, we only had one truck for the city,” Carlson said.

Lifeline has responded to 1,633 calls to date, 242 more than the previous year, when one ambulance was contracted.

“All businesses have a challenging operating environment right now,” she said Tuesday. “We have to balance our budget like any other operation. When you look at the dollars, it’s not a difficult decision. It just makes sense.”

“We went through hours of negotiating our contract and making sure no one else came in and now you want to change your contract,” Ald. James Marks asked Carlson at Monday’s meeting. “A contract’s a contract.”

Ald. Andy Racz wondered whether pulling back an ambulance would compromise response times and directed the question to fire Chief Dave Worrell.

“You’ve got to remember that a lot has changed in the last year,” Worrell said. “A couple years ago, we didn’t have a hospital in town. Lifeline’s turnaround would be much quicker today than previously. In the past, that (ambulance) was going to Rockford and was gone for a couple of hours on average. Now the turnaround will be much quicker.”

Aldermen will vote Monday on a motion to amend the agreement and reduce the number of Lifeline ambulances for Belvidere.

Representatives from Lifeline offered last month to donate an ambulance to the Fire Department for backup. The donation was not made in writing or included in the amendment proposed Monday.

“That new ambulance appeared to be off the table,” City Attorney Michael Drella said Tuesday. “The new agreement they proposed simply said, we want to go back to the way it was before this agreement, and that was to have one ambulance dedicated to the city of Belvidere and they provide their own backup.”